MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

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The whole concept of “a CBT model of CFS/ME” is the fallacy of the Wessely School and consequently of
the MRC, NICE, and the Department for Work and Pensions (which, as noted above, is jointly funding
the PACE Trial and where psychiatrist Peter White is lead advisor on “CFS/ME”).
The troubling issue of CBT/GET as the sole intervention for ME/CFS
The Wessely School do not claim that there is no physiological explanation for the symptomatology of
“CFS/ME” ‐‐ it is described on pages 9‐16 of the PACE Trial CBT Manual for Participants; their claim is that
there is no pathology causing those symptoms. They do not seem to distinguish between physiology and
pathophysiology but assert that the physiological changes result from deconditioning and are therefore
reversible by CBT and GET. The folly of such a belief is easily demonstrated. For example, on page 11 of the
CBT Manual for Participants is given the “physiological” explanation for visual problems and hyperacusis
seen in ME/CFS: “Visual and hearing changes: prolonged bed‐rest results in a ‘headward’ shift of bodily fluids. This
may result in visual problems and sensitivity to noise”. This disregards the fact that ambulant people with
ME/CFS also experience these problems. The quotations below from the Manuals (in Section 4) provide
further examples of such misleading reasoning.
Moreover, the Wessely School themselves already know that the very modest benefit in only some patients
who have undergone CBT has been shown by the Wessely School themselves to last for only 6 – 8 months
and that “the observed gains may be transient” (Long‐term Outcome of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy versus
Relaxation Therapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A 5‐Year Follow‐Up Study. Alicia Deale, Trudie
Chalder, Simon Wessely et al. Am J Psychiat 2001:158:2038‐2042).
This was confirmed by others: in his Summary of the 6 th AACFS International Conference in 2003, Charles
Lapp, Associate Clinical Professor, Duke University, and Director, Hunter‐Hopkins Centre, North Carolina,
stated about CBT that Dr Daniel Clauw (who had studied 1,092 patients) found that at 3 months there were
modest gains, but at follow‐up at 6 and 12 months, those modest gains were lost.
The Dutch Report showing that CBT does not work in ME/CFS
A Dutch report of February 2008 by Drs MP Koolhaas, H de Boorder and Professor Elke van Hoof
(http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/8724) comes to unambiguous conclusions
about CBT for ME/CFS:
“In recent years, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), has been getting a
lot of attention in scientific literature. There is as yet no consensus about the treatment of ME/CFS. The different
treatments can be subdivided into two groups, the pharmacological and the psychosocial therapies.
“Most of the scientific articles on treatment emphasize the psychosocial approach. The most intensively studied
psychological therapeutic intervention for ME/CFS is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). In recent years several
publications on this subject have been published. These studies report that this intervention can lead to significant
improvements in 30% to 70% of patients, though rarely include details of adverse effects.
“This pilot study was undertaken to find out whether patients’ experiences with this therapy confirm the stated
percentages. Furthermore, we examined whether this therapy does influence the employment rates, and could possibly
increase the number of patients receiving educational training, engaged in sports, maintaining social contacts and
doing household tasks.
“Method: By means of a questionnaire posted at various newsgroups on the Internet, the reported subjective
experiences of 100 respondents who underwent this therapy were collected. These experiences were subsequently
analysed.